Museo Ettore Fico

All about coffee and the Lavazza brand, in a former coffee factory.

Palladian church built 1865-68, originally as part of a care facility for poor and delinquent boys founded by Don Bosco (1815-88). He himself is buried here, along with 6000 bits and pieces of saints.

Science museum, child-oriented, limited English signage.

A church and Benedictine monastery may have stood here since the 5th century. Most of it is from 1680 to 1740, an over-the-top profusion of baroque.

The original Sindone or Turin Shroud is in safekeeping in the Cathedral and rarely displayed. This small museum displays a copy and studies the Shroud. It's a remarkable object whatever it is, a 4.4 x 1.1 m winding sheet charred by fire and appearing to bear the likeness of a man, matching the Gospel description of the crucifixion of Jesus. Multiple tests have produced contradictory results, or at least contradictory interpretations. It's only reliably known to have existed since 1390 when it was denounced as a forgery, and radio-carbon dating matches that. But no deliberate attempt to reproduce it has managed to capture all its qualities, especially the 3D effect of its photo negative, and neither natural nor artificial processes convincingly explain it. So just look and wonder.

This museum houses art from Kandahar, India, Southeast Asia, China and Japan. The third floor shows Buddhist and Tibetan culture. The fourth floor is Islamic and Arabian, mainly bronzes, ceramics and tiles.